Brothers of the Sword and Shield
by howard2037
Summary: Naruto was smarter than everyone thought. He knew exactly who and what he was. He also knew he wouldn't grow in Konoha, so he left to find a better life as a mercenary. Soon after he leaves Konoha, he meets a red-headed boy that was the same as him, so they team up to survive in the shinobi world, and enter the bingo books as the feared 'Brothers of the Sword and Shield'. NOT YAOI!
1. The Beginning

**Hello to anyone who is reading my story! This is my first attempt at a fanfiction, so I hope that it is good enough to bother reading. I want to say right away that this story is NOT YAOI! I will accept any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism to try to improve my future writing! I intend to make this a fairly long story, so here is the first Chapter!**

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Chapter 1: The beginning

Konoha - six years after the kyubi attack

It was what most people would consider a beautiful view on a beautiful day on top of the yondaime's head in the village hidden in the leaves. But to the person seated there, his head thrown back with the ghost of a smile on his face, wind whipping wildly around him tossing his golden hair from side to side, it was simply a place to ponder. A place to ponder anything and everything that he deemed worthy of his attention. Today he was deep in thought about the decision that he had come to about his future.

Flashback - one week ago

_Naruto was a smart boy. Smarter than anyone was willing to give him credit for. He knew that the majority of Konoha's populous hated him. How could he not when they beat him within an inch of his life on his birthday every year? When he was younger he simply tried to grin and bear it, thinking that he could prove to the villagers over time that he was worth something, but as time past and he was hated by the villagers more than ever, his incredible intellect and curiosity went to work. He knew that he was born on October 10th, the day of the kyubi attack. He had heard the names that people called him such as 'demon brat' or 'fox demon'. The question he wanted to answer was simple. What connection did he have with the kyubi? After extensively searching through Konoha's general library Naruto was at a dead-end. All information about the specifics of the attack six years ago were in the shinobi section of the library, and there was no chance that he would be able to sneak in undetected._

_Seeing that he couldn't find anything more in the library at the time, he decided to head over to the area of town that housed a great number of bars and brothels. The blond reasoned that people are often careless about what information they let slip when they have had a few too many drinks and that he might be able to gather some information. He may have been smart for his age, but he was still a six-year-old and he didn't see the major flaw in his plan. The biggest being that when people are drunk, they do things that they wouldn't be bold enough to do sober. Things like try to kill a certain child to rid Konoha of a 'demon'._

_That lead him to his current situation. Backed into a dead-end ally with half a dozen drunken men blocking the exit._

_"Well well well, look what we got here? The little demon walking around in our humble little section of town?" A man from the crowd called while stepping forward, ominously holding the jagged neck of a broken sake bottle. "I think we should teach the demon a lesson for thinking that he can walk around like he owns the place, don't you?" murmurs of agreement rippled through those assembled as the men began their approach._

_A small part of Naruto was amazed that the self appointed spokes person of the group could talk so clearly after the amount of alcohol he had consumed, but the larger part of him was more worried about how he could get out of the situation in as few pieces as possible._

_He ultimately decided that if he couldn't escape, that he might as well try to glean what information he could before he was unconscious. "Why? Why do you all hate me? Why do you all think that I'm the kyubi!?" He shouted at them in a half frustrated, half panicked tone._

_To answer him the single chuunin shinobi of the group thrust his hand out and grabbed a hold of the struggling Naruto's throat. "Why, you ask? Because you are the nine tailed fox! I remember that day perfectly! The day that the yondaime hokage fought you and sealed you into human form! He gave up an orphan's life to house you, and now we're finishing what he started!" He screamed into the poor blonde's face._

_As he brought his fist back to punch his captive in the stomach, a kunai flew out from the rooftops and sank into the chuunin's throat, ending his life almost instantly. Surprised shouts came from the others before two figures with white porcelain masks appeared in front of Naruto._

_"For speaking an S-ranked village secret, you are all hereby sentenced to execution" was the stony statement from the weasel masked ninja._

_Before any protest could be made, Naruto's other protector, dog, flicked his wrists releasing the kunai held in his hands. Five more thuds were heard in the ally while the little blond recovered his breath._

_"Thanks_ Kakashi-aniki,_ Itachi-san. I don't know what I'd do without you two..." Naruto breathed while massaging his throat._

_The dog masked ANBU sighed in exasperation before answering the boy, "Naruto, you know that you aren't supposed to say our names in public. I don't even know how you figured out our names..."_

_"I know, but it seems really weird to call you animal names when i know your real ones, and to answer your question, it was pretty easy. Itachi always smell's slightly of smoke and I would recognize your hair anywhere!" was the reply he got._

_Kakashi face palmed while Itachi just chuckled, "I suppose that this encounter has raised questions that you would like answered, am I right, Naruto-kun?" asked the young Uchiha prodigy._

_The Uzumaki got a far away look in his eye's and nodded silently._

_"Very well, It would be best if we went to see the hokage about this."_

_Again Naruto just nodded as he went over in his head what the villager could have meant. He knew for a fact that he wasn't the kyubi. He would know if he was some monster fox that enjoyed death and destruction. While it was true, Naruto had grown accustomed to death after having seen so many people killed in front of him for their crimes, that certainly didn't mean he enjoyed it. He eventually decided that it would be best to wait for the hokage to tell him what was going on. After all, the old man wasn't called the professor for nothing. He must be able to tell him something._

End Flashback

Sarutobi was initially furious that the villagers had attacked Naruto yet again. It seemed that they never would learn. After calming down he explained to the young jinchuuriki what exactly happened on his birthday. Naturally, Naruto was shocked and not sure what to say. The old man understood his position and excused him from his office. Naruto had spent the last week thinking of this latest development.

_Why would a hokage who was known throughout the elemental nations as a kind-hearted man take an orphan that he didn't even know, and seal a bijuu into it? No, the yondaime wouldn't do that. He must have known me somehow..._ The boy sighed as he opened his eye's to look out over the village. _But he also wasn't the type of person to ask a parent to give up their child, even if it was for the benefit of the village. He wouldn't ask someone to do something that he wasn't willing to do himself. But if that was the case then would that mean...? _Naruto's eye's widened to huge proportions before he stood bolt upright. That couldn't be right! Someone would know if the son of the fourth hokage was alive! Right!? Naruto had some research to do...

One week later

Once again we find our blond hero sitting on top of his newly discovered, fathers head. He had done some digging at the library again and had found some interesting information. It seemed that the fourth hokage had a wife. That was most certainly not common knowledge, and it took some effort on Naruto's part to find that kind of information. He found that his wife's name was Kushina Uzumaki. Uzumaki. That isn't exactly a common name in Konoha. He could only think of one other Uzumaki in the village and that was himself. The information that convinced the blond that his theory was correct was that this Kushina Uzumaki was taken off active duty nine months before the attack. It would have to have been a good reason to take an S-ranked konoichi off of active duty. Pregnancy would be a good enough reason, and when your husband is hokage he'll probably be a bit over protective.

initially Naruto wasn't sure what to think. He was stuck between being happy and saddened. Happy because he finally knows who his parents were. Not to mention that his parents were world famous shinobi, who's names still strike fear into people's hearts in some parts of the world, namely, Iwa. But he couldn't help but be saddened by this discovery. He knows who his parents are, but he also knows that he will never get the chance to meet them. He'll never be held by his mother. He'll never get the chance to have his dad teach him something new. He would never be able to have a normal family.

But he was also at peace with what he found. He has no reason to doubt that his parents loved him. It was simply unfortunate circumstances that resulted in him being left alone.

In the end, Naruto was faced with the question. What will he do now. By this point he has realized that no matter what he does, he will be despised in Konoha. His parents would never have wanted that, and when he thought about it, he could count the people that he liked in the leaf on one hand.

After thinking long and hard about what he should do he came to a decision. Naruto was leaving Konoha.

Later that night

A shadow was working it's way through the market district of the village, avoiding anything that might have spotted it. The shape had a destination in mind and it wasn't going to let anything get in his way. After maneuvering through several alley ways, it came to a halt in front of one particular shinobi supply store. Peeking through the window, it deemed it a safe place to enter. After swiftly picking the lock on the door, a skill that was a necessity for living on the streets, the person silently entered and closed the door.

An arm reached up and pushed the black hood back from a face revealing a messy mop of golden hair. _Alright, first things first, where the clothing isle?_

After searching the clothing section thoroughly several times over Naruto groaned in frustration. _I should have know that they wouldn't have anything my size! I'm six years old! The smallest sizes here could fit someone twice my age! Damn, I guess I'll just get something that I can wear in a few years..._Naruto mentally ranted.

Working as quickly as possible, the boy had a collection of clothing that he liked. It consisted of black cargo pants that would be baggy but wouldn't get in the way for movement, a durable black long-sleeved shirt that would fit snug, steel toed combat boots, and a black flak jacket with burnt orange trim, numerous pockets for scrolls and equipment, and no markings that could connect it with Konoha.

But what grabbed his attention the most was the unique pair of combat gloves that he had picked out. In the whole store he only found one pair, and they look to be quite expensive. They were black gloves with the usual metal plate on the back, but they also had one inch spikes on each knuckle and razor-sharp claws on each finger tip that were also about an inch long. Naruto could just imagine the damage that those things could do. Even if somebody did block your punch they would still be left with four holes in their arm after stopping it. Even better yet, the box he got them out of said that the metal was a special chakra conducting metal from the land of Iron. Excitedly, the boy started looking through the store for the other things that he would need. He had already found a few sealing scrolls, so he didn't need to worry about being weighed down by needless stuff.

After collecting more equipment he had everything he came for; clothing, kunai, shuriken, chakra weights for training, smoke bombs, exploding notes, and ninja wire. But he couldn't help but think that he was missing something. After briefly thinking Naruto smacked himself on the fore head. "Stupid! I almost forgot to grab some scrolls on nin, tai, and genjutsu! Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

After he was done abusing his face he set off to find the scroll section. A quick glance out the window told him that it was almost morning. This Particular shop opens at around 6:00 AM so the shinobi who have early morning missions can stop by before leaving. That didn't give him much time, but he knew that he could make it work. He had read in the library the previous day that there was a special type of paper that could indicate what your nature affinity was. Naruto had found something that fit the description, so he gave it a try. After taking hold of the paper between his index finger and thumb, he channeled some chakra to it. The results surprized him immensely. First, the paper was shredded into tiny pieces, then half of them ignited into pitch black flames while the other half became dripping wet. The two blue eye's watching the events play out widened to ridiculous sizes. _Three affinities!? The books said that most people only have one, or in some cases two, but three!? the only person that I can think of that naturally has three elements is Kakashi-aniki, and then he got another one when he received that eye transplant! This is soooo cool, dattebayo!_

Of course, Naruto would never show that amount of excitement externally. He was able to control himself enough to simply put on a face-splitting grin. With such powerful wind and fire elements, and an unusually powerful water element, he could be almost unstoppable! Swiftly disposing of the ashes and wet paper he started searching through the racks of scrolls for ones on his elements. He was able to find the nature manipulation exercises for all three although it was a lot harder to find one for wind, so he started looking for jutsu scrolls. Finding jutsu on fire was extremely easy, probably because it is the most common affinity in the land of fire. Water took some effort but he gathered a few that interested him, but no matter where he looked, he couldn't find a single technique for wind. _I guess that's the problem with having the rarest element in the elemental nations as your primary affinity. _Naruto thought with his shoulders sagged. That didn't mean he wasn't happy though, he was still able to find some awesome jutsu for his other elements and he would be travelling the world so he could find some wind scrolls some other time.

After picking out the ninjutsu scrolls he moved on to taijutsu. This proved to be much easier than ninjutsu, as inside the box for his gloves, it listed several styles that could go well with them. He found all of the ones on the list that he could with his limited time that he had left and moved on. He could look at them and adapt them to his personal fighting style later.

Now he just needed a scroll for genjutsu and he could leave. Naruto had already decided that genjutsu wasn't his style, but he also knew that it was important to know how to break out of one. Several minutes later he had all the scrolls he came for so he turned around to head for the pile of things that he had set aside earlier. As he was walking away something hanging on the wall caught his eye. As he turned to look at it, the boy had to resist the urge to drool at the sight of it. Hanging on the wall was an elegant sword with a three-and-a-half foot long, straight, two-edged blade that was roughly three inches wide that seemed to be a glassy, shimmering royal blue color. On the center of both sides of the blade was a strange black symbol that Naruto couldn't recognize, he assumed that it wasn't Japanese. The hilt had a simple steel cross-guard and leather wrapped hand-and-a-half handle so it could be held either with one or both hands. The pommel of the sword wasn't a traditional metal pommel, but instead, there was a shinning blue sapphire, held in place by intricate steel wiring. On display beside the sword was what would appear to be the sheath. It too was a glassy blue color with the same symbol that was on the blade.

(If you have ever read the inheritance cycle, the sword is Brisingr. If you don't know what I'm talking about just Google image 'Brisingr sword')

Still in awe at the majestic sword, Naruto approached the wall in a trance. He noticed a small scroll below it on the wall, so he read through it. What he read amazed him. Apparently this sword is called Brisingr, which means fire in some strange language, and that the odd symbol on the sheath and sword was the symbol for Brisingr. It said that the blade was forged by an ancient weapons master who lived for over a thousand years and spent her life learning new ways to make blades. Any weapon made by her could never be broken and would never get dull. The jewel on the hilt could also store a near limitless amount of energy inside, to be draw out by the wielder should it be needed. What made this sword different from all the other creations of this ancient blacksmith was that when you spoke it's name it would be engulfed in magnificent blue flames that hardly took any chakra to metal was highly chakra conductive for other elements as well.

As would anyone else in his situation, Naruto was nearly frothing at the mouth at the opportunity to use such a sword. A quick glance at the price tag told him why nobody had bought a sword as epic as this. He doubted that the hokage had that much money to throw around! Naruto saw no reason that he couldn't help himself to it. After all, he had read that the Uzumaki were famous kenjutsu users! Not to mention that he doubted that it would ever be sold. If it had sat there this long, nobody will buy it in the future so really, from his point of view, he was doing the shop owner a favour by freeing up some space on the wall! He also knew that the shop owner would likely disagree with him on that. Naruto made a mental note to steal a large sum of money from some of he wealthier councilmen and leave it on the shop counter with an apology note.

The effort needed to drag a sword and sheath of that size to the rest of his supplies left poor Naruto huffing and puffing. He spared a couple minutes finding several scrolls on kenjutsu that he would look through later, but for now he needed to seal up his loot and get out of that store. Deciding that organization was a good thing in this case, he labeled all the sealing scrolls that he had and sealed everything of that category into it. He had one for clothing, one for weapons, one for Brisingr and it's sheath, one for the food and camping gear that he would steal later, and finally one for his scrolls. Inside his scroll labeled 'scrolls' were even more sealing scrolls. He had one for taijutsu, one for non elemental ninjutsu, one for each of his elements, one for kenjutsu, the lone genjutsu scroll, and he even had a series of fuinjutsu scrolls that he thought he would take a look at considering who his parents were. After he had everything where he wanted it, he sealed all of the other scrolls into one that he labeled 'master scroll'. Earlier, around midnight, he had found a paper seal that if you pressed it against your skin and applied chakra, a tattoo of the seal on the paper would appear on your body. The blond decided that he would give it a try, so he pressed the 'storage seal' paper against his forearm, a few inches above the wrist, so that it would be covered if he wore his new shirt, but it would still be easily accessible. When the process was done, He sealed the master scroll into it and turned to leave the store.

_Crap! I was so excited about the stuff I found I completely forgot the time! _Was the first thing he thought when he saw the rays of morning light coming through the shop windows. Naruto looked at the clock that read 5:45. _The owner will be here any minute now! Maybe I can get out through the back!_

Sprinting through he shop as fast as his little legs could carry him, he ran into the back room. As he looked around he realized something. _There's no back door! Damn! How else am I going to get out of here?_ At that moment he could faintly hear the sound of the front door opening and somebody else entering the shop. _I have to get out of here now! There's no way that he won't notice the absence of a very expensive, shiny blue sword!_

At this point panic was starting to set in. He heard a startled yelp from the other room. The manager had noticed the sword was gone. In an act of frustration, Naruto punched the back wall while muttering, "Let me out of here, damn it!"

Naruto didn't expect that the wall would listen to him. So you can imagine his surprise when suddenly hundreds of razor-sharp blades of wind exploded from his fist and shredded a hole into the stone just big enough for him to get out of. Pausing for a brief moment to stare in amazement at his fist, he leapt out of the hole he had made. If the shop owner didn't know he was still there he did now with the amount of noise that made. Taking a quick look both ways down the ally to make sure he wasn't seen, he bolted to his left. Naruto was now regretting not scouting out escape routes before robbing the store. The direction he took was apparently the wrong one as he was soon faced with a large brick wall and he could hear the shop manager gaining on him. Leaping as high as he could, the blond realized that he wouldn't make it. _Just a little higher!_

Again he was surprised when instead of falling back down to earth, a powerful gust of wind seemed to push him over the wall and out of sight. Naruto sighed and relaxed. Nobody had seen him in the act and no one would suspect that a six-year-old child stole such a large amount of valuable produce from a shinobi store. Taking several calming breaths. All he needed now was food and camping gear. He had the perfect place in mind, but for now he would lay low for a couple of day's and let the store robbery blow over before he hit his next target. A large grin appeared on his face. So far everything was working out just fine.

Five days later

The robbery of the grocery store wasn't nearly as exiting or interesting as the heist a few days ago. Basically, Naruto walked in, took what he wanted, and walked out. Really it was a bit of a let down.

The young jinchuuriki planned to spend the next couple of days observing the patrols around the village so that he could find and opening to get out undetected. He knew that they would notice eventually, especially when Itachi and Kakashi did routine checks on him to make sure he was alright but he would take whatever head start he could get.

The past few day's Naruto had also been experimenting with his newfound ability to control air without hand seals. His control of it is still quite rough, but he is improving. _Who needs__ wind jutsu!? If I can control wind like this already, I can just make my own, or just use it like this!_ He still though that he should probably still go through the nature manipulation for wind, seeing as how it might improve his control over it. _But enough thinking about that, I have some patrols to observe!_

One week later

Today was the day. The day he would finaly escape from the hateful glares of the villagers and the mocking from the children his age. The past week of observing both ANBU and regular patrols had given him enough information to form an escape plan. Every night there was the same patrol routes with the exception of one night. It was one that night that Naruto observed all of the ANBU suddenly converge on the Uchiha estate. He had no idea what the reason was until the next day when nearly the entire village was taking about it. The famed prodigy, Itachi Uchiha, had murdered his entire clan, with the only survivor being his little brother Sasuke. Most people thought that he must just have been in the right place at the right time to survive, but Naruto knew differently. He knew how much Itachi loved his baby brother. He was the single thing that Itachi talked about most.

A few years ago, Itachi brought Sasuke with him to meet Naruto. From day one the two boys seemed to go together like bread and butter. It wasn't a well-known fact, but Sasuke played a large role in the planning and executing some of Naruto's more infamous pranks. It seemed the young Uchiha was almost as much as a prankster as the blond was.

When he saw how well the two got along, Itachi seemed to be mildly pleased by normal standards, but coming from the stoic Itachi, it was a sign that he must have been ecstatic! Yes, Naruto knew that Itachi had spared Sasuke on purpose. He also knew that Itachi wasn't a mindless killer. He must have had a good reason to do what he did, so the blond boy wasn't going to judge him.

Before he leaves, Naruto stopped by the hospital to see his only friend, not counting that Shikimaru kid that he had met once. He was still in a coma from what Itachi did to him, but the doctors say that he should be waking up in a day or two.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a letter. Slowly reaching forward, he places this letter just under the sheet of the bed, on Sasuke's chest. Standing up to leave Naruto takes one last look at his only friend in Konoha. "Goodbye, Sasuke."

With that he turned around and left.

Nighttime - Hokage's office

It was late at night, past the hour where all the workers had went home, when a small, stealthy boy slipped in to the hokage's office. Before he left he wanted to give his grandfather figure something. Call it a farewell. Silently opening the draw to the old wooden desk, Naruto slipped a piece of paper into it. Heading back to the door he noticed a large scroll sitting in a locked, glass case. Not being able to help himself, he crossed the room and started picking the lock. After several tries the door popped open allowing Naruto to take a look inside. The name 'forbidden scroll of sealing' just aroused his curiosity more. A quick look showed that almost all of the jutsu mentioned were suicide techniques. All but one. The shadow clone jutsu. After reading the description Naruto immediately saw the benefits of solid clones that relayed their memories back to you. _This would be soooo great for training, dattebayo! I could learn things so fast!_ He wasted no time copying down the jutsu into a blank scroll that he had stolen when he robbed that store. Once he was finished he set to work erasing all evidence that he was ever there.

Nighttime - Konoha's walls

At a glance it would appear to be just another night along the village walls, but if someone looked carefully, they might just see the small shape fleeing to the west.

Naruto had made it over the wall and out of the village without anybody noticing, and with luck nobody would notice until morning when the old man read his letter. Better yet, rain was just starting to fall which would wash away both is tracks and scent. Before taking off he took one look back at Konoha.

"Kaa-san, tou-san, I know this probably isn't what you imagined me doing with my life but it's the only option I have. I'll never be accepted in the leaf, and even though I won't be a leaf shinobi, I'll still make you proud. Believe it." With that he turned around and departed.

While he was running he was putting his new wind abilities to good use. He was actively making a strong current of wind behind him to increase his speed. After all, he wanted to get as much distance between him and possible pursuers as he could, rain or not.

Konoha - next morning

Hiruzen Sarutobi was once again seated at his desk preparing for today's tor... eh, paperwork. The aging man groaned as he looked at the massive stacks in front of him. He had lived through all three great shinobi wars, and had fought in two of them, but he would do it all again if it meant he would never have to face paperwork again. Sighing in resignation he opened his drawer and reached for his pen, but when his hand brushed against something that he didn't leave in his drawer, he took a hold of it and pulled it out. The object in question was a piece of paper, a letter to be precise, and someone had come into his office and put it into his drawer without anybody noticing.

_Hey old man,_

_I'm sorry I couldn't tell you this in person, but I know you likely wouldn't agree with my reasoning. To put things simply, I know about my parents. I did some research and was able to figure it out. I know you wanted me to be a Konoha shinobi, but I've come to my decision. I don't belong in Konoha. Not that I hate the village mind you, but it is quite obvious that the village hates me. I would never be able to be the best I can be if I serve a village that is out for my blood, and I know this isn't what my parents would have wanted. By the time you've read this I'm likely already gone. It will be a waste of energy looking for me, you won't find me. I'm really sorry it came to this. I'm grateful for everything that you've done for me. Goodbye, old man._

_Naruto Uzumaki,_

As soon as he was done reading, he stood so fast that he sent his chair tumbling behind him.

"ANBU! Bring me Naruto Uzumaki! Now! And you tori, get me Inu!" The sandaime bellowed at his subordinates that were concealed throughout the room.

"Hai!" was the unanimous response.

As his ANBU shunshined away, Hiruzen let out a deep sigh as he turned to look out across his village. "Naruto, I hope this isn't the last time I hear from you."

Ko9noha hospital

Early morning sun ray's filtered through the window into room 249 onto the sleeping face of Sasuke Uchiha. "Hhhmmmm..." a quiet groan escaped his mouth as the boy stirred underneath the covers. A black eye cracked open and looked around him to Identify where he was. _White bed, white ceiling, white floor. Must be the hospital. But Itachi! Where is he!?_ A pained gasp erupted from the obsidian eyed boy as his body protested his efforts to stand. _If I'm in the hospital it must mean he got away..._ As he shuffled around to get comfortable he felt something move on his chest underneath his covers. He reached down and pulled the annoying object out so that he could see what it was. When he realized that it was a letter, and that it was addressed to him, although he couldn't think of who would need to write him. His curiosity got the better of him as he opened it up and started reading.

_Hey Sasuke,_

_How are you doing? I hope your recovering nicely in the hospital. I heard about what happened, and I want to say that I understand what your going through, but I would be lying. I hope that no one ever has to go through what your going through. I wish I could be there to offer more support, and believe me, I would be if I could. That is the main reason I left you this letter. I've left Konoha. I don't mean to abandon you, but you must have realised by now that the villagers will never accept me. It may be a long time before I see you again in person, but remember, we will meet again, I promise! We still need to pull off that killer prank we planned! Good luck with your career as a ninja, and you better get rookie of the year for me! Oh, and Sasuke. Don't go after revenge. It will only tear you down until you can't see anything except your revenge. Not only that, but don't believe all that they tell you about the slaughter. They council will likely try to use this opportunity to try to control the last Uchiha, so don't listen to the stories they give you. You knew Itachi just as well as I did so you know that he would never do something like this without a reason. That's just the type of person Itachi was, if he tried to tell you otherwise, he was likely trying to protect you. After all, your his little brother. It was obvious how much he cared for you, so never think for a moment that he was a heartless killer! I'm running out of time to write this, so I'll bring this letter to a close. Goodbye my friend, I'll see you in a little while._

_P.S. You drool a lot when you sleep!_

_Naruto Uzumaki,_

By the time Sasuke had finished the letter, tears were openly flowing down his face. The last Uchiha clenched his had into a fist as he seemingly stared into space. Not only were Itachi and the rest of his family gone, but Naruto to! Choking back a sob, the boy turned his head to look out the window. "You better keep your promise!" He murmured between sobs. "After all..." a small smile formed on his face, "That prank was going to be the best one yet!"

As he though about the letter and his blond friend, Sasuke's eyes took on a determined look. "I won't let revenge consume me! And I certainly won't let those councilmen get a hold of me! I'll be a worthy shinobi when we meet again, that's a promise!"

Outside Konoha's walls - noon

Kakashi stared dejectedly into the horizon. After hours of intense searching, their tracker nins couldn't find so much as a clue as to where Naruto had gone. It seemed the rain had washed away both his tracks and his scent to the point that they couldn't pick it up. The silver haired jonin looked back to the hokage monument to gaze mournfully at his sensei's face. "I'm sorry sensei, I failed you."

Konoha - four days later

Sasuke Uchiha glared out his hospital window at the crowds of villagers partying in the streets. As soon as word got out that the demon was gone, most of the civilians and a small number of shinobi started having parties all over the village, until the entire village was one big party. He hated them. How dare they do this to him! After all that he had done for them! A nurse that had come to give him his food the other day let it slip that Naruto had the kyubi inside of him. This development made the boy respect him even more for holding such a powerful being at bay. And now the villagers were celebrating the fact that he was gone! Naruto may have convinced him not to hate his older brother, but those villagers weren't spared Sasuke's scorn. Yes, he hated them through and through. While the noises from the party drifted up into his room, he couldn't help but wish that his friend would come back. Unknown to him, he wasn't the only one who was thinking that at that time.

Gates of Suna

It was proving to be a incredibly boring day on gate duty for the two chuunin that were stationed at the entrance to the hidden sand village.

"Man, this job is such a pain!" groaned one of the guards. "Why can't we go on some missions instead!"

"What are you taking about!? this job is perfect for relaxing! You're just to high-strung." retorted his partner.

The first man scoffed, " Maybe for you it is, but for me it's just so boring!"

"Well you'll just have to deal with it." was the unsympathetic response he got

A few more minutes past before one of the guards spotted something coming from the east. As it got closer they realized that the thing they saw approaching them was a young boy who couldn't be more than six years old! When he got within ear shot one of the men called out to him, "Hey kid! What are you doing!?" Without responding, the blond boy kept approaching the gate. It was then that they got a good enough look at him to realize that he looked dead on his feet. Just when he was about to reach them he collapsed of exhaustion. After briefly debating, one of the guards brought him to the hospital to be taken care of. It wasn't like a little boy who likely lost his family in the desert was a threat in any way.

The nurses said that it was just a minor case of exhaustion with some dehydration, nothing that they couldn't take care of. Naruto stayed in that room, sleeping until he finally woke up about six hours later. naturally, having a huge mass of chakra sealed into your stomach speeds up your recover, coupled with the fact that the Uzumaki were known for their outragous healing abilities, he had plenty of energy to spend when he woke up.

Looking around him, all he saw was white. _Where am I? The last thing I remember I had reached suna's gates... _He quickly deduced that he was inside the hospital. Not that he felt that he needed to be, so with that though in mind, he got up and hastily left the room that he had been sleeping in. It's not like he wanted to worry the doctors, but he knew that if they found out he was awake that they would want to keep him in the hospital for a few more day's, something that really wasn't necessary for someone like him.

After stealthily sneaking out of the hospital he started to wonder around town. It wasn't too hot out today so he was fine going the way he was. What he saw fascinated Naruto. He had never imagined what another hidden village would look like, but from what he could see, Suna was definitely a really cool place. The people were nice to him and treated him like a human being, something that had rarely happened in Konoha. He spent the greater part of the day simply wandering the streets of the village and enjoying the sights. Naruto let out a sigh, so far he really liked this place, but he knew that he would likely be searched for, so he would have to keep on the move, but he could at least spend a few day's here. Pushing that though to the back of his mind, the blond moved on through the market district of Suna. He stopped at various shop windows and looked at various products, not that he could buy anything. He didn't have any money. But that didn't stop him from enjoying himself as he explored more of the desert town. His day was going as well as could be expected until he noticed a small, red haired boy across the street. As the boy walked parents nearby would put themselves between him and their children as they, and all the others in the area seemingly fled from the boy. In a matter of minutes the entire street was vacated, save the strange red-head and Naruto.

Seeing this boy treated that way brought up too many bad memories for Naruto to just walk by. Maybe this boy was the same as him! Boldly marching up to the stranger, he greeted him, "Hey, how's it going? My name's Naruto! What's yours?"

The boy in question seemed to just notice that he wasn't alone on the street. Looking up at this strange blond he was confused. Why didn't he run away? Why wasn't he screaming in terror? Why did care what his name is? "Aren't you scared?" He asked in disbelief.

A confused look crossed the blonds face, "Why should I be scared? All I see is a kid who could use a friend, sorta like me I guess!"

"But...everybody thinks I'm a monster...just because of the tanuki and my sand...why don't you think so?" The wide-eyed boy mumbled in a quiet, confused tone.

Naruto mentally noted what he said about a tanuki and mentally sighed. So it seemed that he was like him. On the outside he kept up the same cheerful demeanor, "I don't see why I'd be afraid of you, I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I was. After all, we're the same."

His new acquaintance's eye's widened even further as he caught the meaning in Naruto's words. "You mean you're like me? With a beast inside?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you! Granted, I'm not from around here, but I still know what you're going through, it was the same where I came from. Now are you going to tell me your name yet?" Naruto asked in a bit of a teasing manner.

"Oh, yes, oh course. My name is Gaara." The newly named Gaara hastily answered.

Naruto kept smiling as he spoke, "Nice to meet you, Gaara! Hey, I was wondering if you could show me around town? I just arrived, so I could use a guide!"

Gaara was still in somewhat of a daze at the moment, though he still heard Naruto's request. A small smile worked its way onto his face as he responded to his new friend, "Sure, I'd enjoy that."

For the next few days the boy's were almost inseparable. Finally being able to be with someone who had gone through what they had gone through was such an encouraging experience for both of them. As they spent time together they swapped stories and experiences such as how and why Naruto escaped from Konoha, or the pranks that he and Sasuke had pulled off. To say that Gaara was shocked when he heard who Naruto's parents were would be an understatement. He was absolutely astonished that he had met the fellow child of a kage casually on the street. But it was Naruto's turn to be surprized when Gaara told him who his father was, and that he ordered assassination attempts on him. He just couldn't fathom any parent, no matter how terrible, trying to kill their child. It just wasn't right!

"I guess that I'm just doomed to be this village's weapon. a mindless monster." Gaara spoke in a soft, somewhat depressed voice.

"No! There's no way in hell that I'm going to let you live like that!"

The red-head looked at his companion in shock from his outburst. Why would someone he just met a few day's ago stand up for him in such a way?

"That's it! If this village isn't going to recognize you for who you are, they don't deserve to have you! When I leave, you can come with me!" Exclaimed the Uzumaki.

Curiously, when he thought about it, Gaara wasn't apposed to the idea. He thought about what it would be like, traveling the world with someone who understands his pain. Thinking about it put a small smile on Gaara's face. "Let's do It!"

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**Well, that's the first chapter done. Please, review and let me know what you liked and what you didn't!**


	2. The 'official' Return

**Hello and welcome to chapter 2! Sorry for the late up date, I've been working a lot lately and I was out of town for a while. I am a pretty busy guy, and I'm a bad procrastinator, but I will try my best to update as soon as possible. I want to thank all of you who gave me reviews. As far as pairings go, I do have a pairing in mind, but it won't be introduced until later in the story. Concerning the suggested pairings, I like both and I almost used Tayuya, but in the end I decided against it. This story will not be a harem. I find those too unrealistic. As a final point, I know the first chapter was fast paced, but that chapter was just to lay the foundation for the rest of my story. On to Chapter 2!**

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"Normal speech"

"_Normal thoughts_"

"**Summon/Bijuu speech**"

"_**Summon/Bijuu thought**_"

"**Jutsu**"

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. But it would be cool if I did.

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**Chapter 2:** The 'official' return

**Konoha - seven years later**

Today was the day. The day that Sasuke Uchiha finally became a shinobi of the village hidden in the leaves. The dark-haired boy was waiting on the roof top of the academy for his teammates to arrive. Within several minutes both Sakura and Sai were also present.

Kakashi Hatake chose that moment to put away his book and look at the team that he was given. All he could say is that he wasn't very impressed yet. From the looks of it he got a fan girl, a brooder, and a guy with a creepier smile than Gai.

"Well now that we're all here, why don't we introduce ourselves? Just the basic stuff, name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals." The silver-haired jounin said with an eye-smile. "You start pinky!"

Sakura who had been busy fawning over the last Uchiha was caught off guard. "Um, sensei, why don't you go first to show us how it's done?"

This caused the jonin to raise his eyebrow at the girl.

"Well I suppose I could do that. My name is Kakashi Hatake, I have a number of likes but not too many dislikes, my hobbies are none of your business, and goals? I've never really thought about it."

_All we got was his name!_ All the present genin deadpanned.

"Any way's, now you can go Pinky!"

Scowling at the name he had given her, she started with her introduction. "My name is Sakura Haruno. My likes are-I mean the person I like is..." She glanced over at Sasuke and started giggling in a fan-girlish way. It took all the self-control Kakashi had to not roll his eye's at her behaviour. "My hobbies are..." again she starts into another fit of giggles before continuing, "My dream is..." After she finished her last giggling fit she concluded, "And I hate Sai baka!"

Kakashi and Sasuke sighed deeply at her display. Sai would have to, but he was too busy focusing on his creepy smile no jutsu.

The jounin's eye turned to Sai, "Okay, you next Creepy!"

Sai gave no sign that he cared what Kakashi called him as he started talking, "My name is Sai, I like painting, I dislike bad paintings, my hobby is painting, and my dream is to finish a certain painting in a certain book."

Now it was Kakashi's turn to sweat-drop at his students vague description. At last he turned to the Uchiha. "Your turn Emo!"

The black-haired boy simply scowled more at his teammates focused their attention on him. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. My likes are training and tomatoes. My hobbies are training and pondering things. My dream-no, my ambition is to rebuild the Uchiha clan, and to prove to HIM that I have become a worthy shinobi."

Kakashi had an interested look on his face. _I expected him to want to kill Itachi, but instead he comes out and say's something like that. You really did_ _have an effect on him..._

"Well! now that that's out of the way, I can tell you to meet me at training ground 7 at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Oh, and don't eat breakfast, unless you want to throw up!"

With that being said, Sasuke stood up and started walking away.

"Wait, Sasuke-kun! You didn't tell us your dislikes..." the pink-haired genin called out to him.

That made him stop. He slowly looked over his shoulder as he answered her, "That's easy. I hate...the civilians of Konoha."

Sai's eyes narrowed slightly while Sakura's widened, "W-Wait, Sasuke-kun! Why would you hate the people of your village?"

"For what they did to Naruto." With that, he left the roof-top.

Kakashi just looked sad when his student said what he did, but he couldn't blame him. He knew how much the boy missed his old friend, and when the village was celebrating him leaving, it didn't endear them to him at all.

"So, what do you think?" Kakashi seemingly asked no one once his team had left.

At that moment a shape rose up out of the shadow of a nearby bench. "I think that this is going to be interesting."

"He misses you a lot ya know..."

"I know."

"Are you going to talk to him?"

The nameless shinobi grinned at the question, "No, not yet. Instead, I'm going to leave him with something to work on."

The leaf nin raised his eyebrow at that, "What do you mean?"

"Just some basic things. A letter and some equipment to help with his training. Chakra paper, resistance seal tattoos and a chokuto. Nothing too serious."

Kakashi just gave an exasperated sigh at this, "You might call that nothing serious, but those skills are easily chuunin level! I don't want my student to hurt himself too badly while training."

The man chuckled at this, "Don't worry about him. He'll handle it just fine."

**Konoha - Uchiha District**

Sasuke Uchiha was just returning home from his team meeting. Ever since the massacre he had lived by himself in the old Uchiha clan compound. The only people that bothered him there were fan-girls, and the council. As he approached his residence, he noticed a package waiting for him on his doorstep. Sighing at what seemed to be another gift from one of his fans, he picked it up and carried it inside. After setting it down on his kitchen table, he opened the lid to see what he was given this time.

What he saw, he wasn't expecting. The first thing he could see when he opened it was a letter addressed to him. Not the usual type of letter that he got, to inform him of someone's undying love for him. This letter was casually written and talked to him like a friend would.

_Sasuke,_

_I see you passed your genin graduation._ _Good job!_ _I know that it's been a long time since you heard from me,_ _so I wrote you this letter to remind you that I'm still around!_ _In this box are some materials that will be beneficial in your training._ _You'll need to do some serious training_ _i__f you want to be able to keep up with me when we meet!_ _I've left instructions on how to use the things I've left for you,_ _and I look forward to the near future when we'll meet again._ _Until then, bye Sasuke!_

_Naruto,_

Once again, the boy was left speechless after reading the letter left for him by his old friend. Taking a quick glance at the other things in the box, his eye's took on a look of determination. He would use what was given to him to his fullest ability. "Soon Naruto. Soon we'll meet again and I'll prove that I'm a great shinobi!"

**Several months later**

The mission wasn't going according to plan at all. First they got into a fight with the demon brothers, now the were up against Zabuza Momoichi. Kakashi was trapped in a water prison and Sasuke and Sai had tried everything they could to free him, but nothing was working. Zabuza's water clone could counter their every move like he knew what they were going to do hours in advance! Sasuke couldn't use lightning jutsu, those would fry their sensei to, and his swordmanship was no match for the nuke-nin. Sai's drawings would disperse after getting wet, so they were next to useless as well. All they could do now was wait for their backup from the village to arrive.

"Ha! You Gaki's are pathetic! So much for the students of Kakashi the copy ninja! My graduation class put up more of a fight that you did!" Zabuza called out to the exhausted genin on the shore.

After being humiliated like he just was, Sasuke charged in a fit of anger. Kakashi shouted at his students to retreat but he was ignored. As Sasuke got close to the swordsman, Zabuza swung kubikiribocho towards the genin with a small flick of his wrist. Seeing the massive slab of metal coming towards his neck at speeds he couldn't hope to block, the Uchiha tried desperately to get out of its way but found that he couldn't.

Just as the sword was inches away from his throat, it came to a sudden stop.

Looking down at the screen of sand that had blocked his blade, Zabuza cursed. He had only heard of one shinobi that used sand, and if he was here it meant bad new for the Demon of the Mist.

"It appears as if I arrived at the proper time." a monotonous voice sounded from the treeline. With a shunshin of sand, the shinobi stood beside Sasuke.

The young Uchiha took a moment to look at his saviour. What he saw surprised him greatly. Standing beside him was a short boy, no older than himself, with red hair and a tatoo for love on his forehead. He had a large gourd on his back that was held by a broad shoulder strap. He was wearing a black shirt with fish-net armour underneath and a white muffler wrapped around his other shoulder. His black pants tucked in to his black shinobi sandles and in place of a village symbol he had a forehead protector attached to his shoulder strap that had the kanji for shield.

Turning his sea-green eye's to the Uchiha, he observed him for a moment. "Are you all right?" he asked in a chillingly dull voice.

Scowling slightly, Sasuke stood up and shook himself off. "I'm fine. And who are you?"

A small smirk found its way onto the shinobi's face, "My name is Gaara. I am your backup from Konoha."

Sakura got a confused look on her face, "If you're from Konoha, then why don't you wear our village symbol? And why did they send someone so young? You couldn't be any older than us! Come to think of it, you should have been in our class, but you weren't."

"HA, HA, HA! Are you telling me you don't recognize this kid?" Zabuza called from his place on the water. He had already released Kakashi and was preparing to retreat and try another time. With Gaara here, it was unlikely that he would be able to win, especially if his partner was here.

"What do you mean? Why should I?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke turned an appraising eye to Gaara. What could be so special about him that someone like Zabuza had heard of him?

Zabuza let out another laugh, "Man, Konoha genin sure aren't the brightest! You just got rescued by the world-famous 'Suna Daime' (Sand lord) and you didn't even know it! That's rich!"

Kakahi, who had regained his breath at that point, spoke up, "We can all get acquainted with each other later, but for now, lets finish this!"

At that moment, several senbon shot out from the trees and stuck into the nuke-nin's neck. A masked nin jumped down from his perch and picked up Zabuza's body, "Thank you for distracting him. I've been following this one for quite a long time."

The only adult present answered, "It was no problem. We are glad we could be of help."

With that, the ninja departed with a quick shunshin.

Tanzuna stared wide-eyed at the young group in front of him. If this was what ninja were capable of, he would have no problem finishing the bridge!

"Tanzuna, is your house nearby? We could use a place to rest."

This snapped the bridge builder back to reality, "Oh, yes. it's just a few minutes from here!"

The jonin nodded as he pulled his headband back over his eye. Just as he turned to keep walking down the trail he collapsed from exhaustion. Before he could hit the ground he was caught by a blanket of sand that lifted him up in the air. With that they set off for Tanzuna's house.

* * *

In a few minutes, they found themselves knocking on the bridge-builder's door. A moment later a young woman answered. When she saw Tanzuna she hugged him tightly, "Father! You're back! But who are these people with you?"

"Yes, I'm back Tsunami! And these people are the super ninja who protected me!" He proclaimed boisterously.

Tsunami smiled at the shinobi behind her father, "Thank you so much for helping my dad. You don't know how much this means to me."

Gaara took it upon himself to speak to her, "It was no trouble. We did what we had to do."

She just smiled back, "That may be so, but I'm still grateful!" It was then she noticed the floating mass of sand holding an extremely drained Kakashi.

"Oh my! Is he alright?!" She exclaimed in worry.

Gaara was quick to calm her, "He'll be fine. He just needs some rest. Do you have anywhere that we could lay him down?"

"Of course! Right this way!"

She led them to a room where Kakashi was left to get some sleep.

Once all of Tanzuna's guests had put their gear in the rooms that they were staying in, they got comfortable and relaxed. Team 7 watched as Gaara pulled out an orange book identical to their sensei's.

"If you don't mind, Gaara-san, what is so interesting about those books?" Sai asked with an eyebrow raised. He had read more books lately, so he was looking for god ones.

Gaara looked at him for a moment before opening the book and showing it to Sai. The pale boy's eyes widened further and further as he read page after page. After finishing a particularly interesting part, he looked up at the red-head, "I see. It certainly does grab the reader's attention."

Sakura, who had watched the two of them asked, "What's the book about? Would you recommend it?"

"I would certainly recommend it, but I don't think you'd like it." Was his stoic response.

Sakura wasn't sure what to say after that so Sasuke asked what had been bugging him, "Who are you exactly? You aren't a Konoha shinobi and that Zabuza guy know you, so why are you helping us?"

"It's true, I do not belong to a village. I am a mercenary. My partner and I are being paid by the hokage to provide backup for your squad."

The three genin looked at him in a different light after that. Konoha was often considered the strongest hidden village, so for the hokage to hire a boy their age as a mercenary, he must be strong. Very strong.

Sasuke still wasn't satisfied though "He called you 'Suna Daime'. I can see that you use sand, but just how strong are you to get such a reaction from Zabuza?"

Nobody spoke as Gaara seemed to think on how to answer the question. Eventually he started with his explanation, "My brother and I are high-ranking shinobi in the bingo book. We are the youngest shinobi to reach S-rank. In terms of personal strength, I would be just below your sensei."

Sakura sputtered for a moment before realizing what he just said, "Wait! You mean our sensei is an S-ranked ninja?! If he was so strong then how did he lose? And why was he so wary of you if sensei is stronger than you?"

Smirking faintly at her reaction, he answered her last batch of questions, "Yes, Kakashi is S-ranked. He reached that mark fairly recently after he started sparing with us. The reason he lost is simple. He was tricked. That just shows that no matter how strong you are, You still need to be on guard. Not to mention that Zabuza is still a tough opponent. As for why he was wary of me, he likely know that he couldn't take Kakashi and myself at the same time, But not only that. When he saw me he could guess that my brother was nearby. No matter how strong you are, fighting three S-ranked shinobi is not a good idea."

Team 7 stared with their jaws on the floor as they looked at Gaara. A boy no older than them was one of the most dangerous men in the elemental nations? And he keeps mentioning his brother. Where was he?

The answer to that question would have to come later because Tsunami just finished supper and Kakashi had just come down he stairs.

Supper was an awkward event with a quiet Gaara, a tired Kakashi, three genins that were still trying to absorb what they were just told, a drunken old man, a depressed child, and an uncomfortable Tsunami. They were part way through their meal when they heard a knock on the door. Looking towards he door, Kakashi goes to answer it, leaving everyone else except Gaara curious.

A young voice could be heard talking to Kakashi, "Aniki, you look like hell! What happed to you?"

Kakashi's answer was too quiet to hear, but what they had heard made most of them wonder who it could be.

_'Sensei has a little brother?' _Was the common thought of Sai and Sakura.

Sasuke was a different case. Immediately after hearing the voice he froze, mouth open, food half-way there.

Sakura noticed this and got concerned, "Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?"

Not bothering to answer her, he slowly turned his head towards the direction of the door. Kakashi and the stranger were just coming into the room at that point, and when Sasuke saw the person with his sensei, his chop-sticks fell from his still fingers as he stared in shock.

Sai and Sakura turned to the newcomer to get a better look. He was a blond boy about the same height as Sasuke, with black cargo pants, black light-weight combat boots, a black long-sleeved shirt with the left sleeve torn off, a black flak-jacket with burnt orange trim, and three whisker marks on each cheek. On his left shoulder was a tattoo for family, and he wore a fore-head protector with black cloth that had the kanji for sword.

Team 7 had a variety of responses.

_Enough black? Man, that is such a depressing outfit!_

_He looks quite strong..._

_Is that...?!_

"So this is your team?" He asked as he looked at the occupants of the room. His eyes stopped on the open-mouthed Sasuke as he got a smirk on his face. "Hey there Sasuke."

That simple sentence rebooted Sasuke's mind enough for him to ask dumbly, "Na-Naruto?!"

_Naruto? Is this who Sasuke-kun was talking about back then?_

Looking at the sheath across the small of the Uchiha's back, "I see you're using the sword I got you." Commented Naruto.

Finally coming to terms with what he was seeing, Sasuke answered, "Yeah, I practice for two hours each day with it."

"Damn right you're using it! I spent a lot of money to get that sword specially crafted for you!"

This made the Uchiha raise an eyebrow, "Specially crafted?"

"Well ya, didn't think I'd just get my old buddy a regular chokuto, did you? Hell no! This baby is made out of the finest folded chakra steel in the land of iron, forged by one of the best blacksmiths alive, and engraved with handy combat seals by yours truly!" Naruto boasted with a goofy grin on his face.

Sasuke's jaw dropped at the description. How did he not notice that he had such a badass sword? And what type of combat seals did Naruto mean? He resolved to ask him later.

Gaara looked up from his meal with an exasperated look. Well, about as exasperated as Gaara _can_ look. "You two are ridiculous. Two friends reunited after seven years and all you can talk about are swords."

Naruto blushed and scratched the back of his head while Sasuke realized how true Gaara's words were.

"Wait! If you're mercenaries, how do you know Sasuke-kun?!" Sakura yelled in a voice that should only be used outdoors.

The two wandering nins winced at her volume, after all, jinchuuriki had sensitive hearing and they weren't used to Sakura's loud voice.

Kakashi spoke up, seeing that they were still getting their hearing back from her outburst, "Well you see, Naruto is actually from Konoha. Him and Sasuke were close pals back then, but circumstances forced Naruto to find a new home. He traveled to Suna where he met Gaara who was in a similar situation as him, so the two of them set off to start a new life."

"But if he left Konoha, doesn't that make him a missing-nin?" Continued the Haruno.

Sasuke answered this one, "No. He left before he was a shinobi."

Seeing the next question in the kunoichi's eyes, Naruto answered it before she could ask, "I left when I was six years old. I was an orphan, so it's not like I had anyone to look after me other than myself."

Tsunami and Tanzuna were saddened to hear that this boy was an orphan. It is alway's a tragic thing when a child has no parents to love or care for them.

Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing. A two six-year-old children living on their own and looking after themselves? That just wasn't possible. "You must be lying! There's no way that you could have left that young!"

The Uchiha shot her an angry glare, "It's true! Don't make accusations of people who you just met!"

Sakura looked down in shame. She had spoken without thinking and now her Sasuke-kun was mad at her. But maybe he was right. She had only just met this boy. Before she could sink any deeper into her depression, Tsunami invited Naruto to have a seat and help himself to the food.

"Thank you miss, the food smells delicous!" He graciously acepted.

For the rest of the evening Naruto and Gaara told stories of the places they've been and the jobs that they've done. They didn't talk about any of their serious assignments, but they talked about some of the more humorous or interesting ones. Naruto would bring life to the stories with his unique personality, while Gaara added a somewhat comic element with his stoic story-telling. Eventually team 7 took their turn at telling their experiences. They didn't have near the variety in their stories that the brothers had, but they still had their share of humorous experiences. At one point in the evening Naruto had tried to make things more lively by bringing out a bottle of sake from the storage seal on his wrist, only to have Tsunami snatch it away, saying that she didn't need a bunch of drunken shinobi in her house.

Even without the sake, Everyone still had a great time, and soon enough, the sun had set and everyone was heading off to their rooms. Sasuke was just about to walk up the stairs when he noticed Gaara was still awake and walking out the front door. After considering what to do for a moment, he followed the Suna native out the door and up onto the roof.

"Can I help you, Sasuke?" The red-head asked without looking at him. His gaze was fixed on some point out on the horrizen.

Sasuke stared at the boy with an unreadable expression for a moment before speaking, "Why aren't you going to sleep?"

Now it was Gaara's turn to stare blankly at the person next to him, "I do not sleep." Seeing the Uchiha's confused face, he elaborated, "I have insomnia. I used to have a problem where when I fell asleep, I would go on rampage and kill everyone near me. I guess you could call it a second personality. When Naruto got good enough with seals he sealed up my second personality so that I could sleep without worrying, but It seems that going without sleep for so many years gave me permanent insomnia."

This made Sasuke's eye's widen for what seemed to be the hundredth time today. This calm person beside him used to kill people in his sleep? That was a rather unnerving though, but hearing that he didn't have that problem anymore calmed the Uchiha down. "So you mean you never sleep?"

"Well, not exactly. I sleep sometimes. Every couple of weeks I can get a good night of rest. Or if I was in an exausting battle. I can get a good nap after those to." Gaara responded.

The two teens stood there quietly looking out over the surrounding land. "You should go and get some rest. Your going to need it for tomorrow."

The Uchiha simply nodded and jumped down off the roof.

Silently laying down on his futon, he thought about what had happened today. His long-lost friend and his partner come back and reveal that they're S-ranked shinobi. Sasuke had been training so hard so that he could match Naruto when he returned, but he wasn't even close. But then again, now that he was back, maybe Naruto would help him train. After all, he had sent him those supplies a few months back. Resolving to ask Naruto to help him get stronger in the morning, Sasuke rolled over and went to sleep.

* * *

In the morning after everyone had eaten breakfast, the shinobi in the house planned what they were going to do.

"Okay, the last couple of days have shown me that I need to start training you guy's more intensely. We'll be starting that today." Kakashi announced to the group of genin.

Sakura asked what was on all team 7's mind, "But Kakashi-sensei, why don't we start our training once we get home. One week won't make a large difference."

Kakashi glanced at Gaara before answering, "That's because we need to get you ready for he next time we face Zabuza."

"Didn't that weird nin in the mask kill him?" Sasuke asked in a slightly concerned voice.

"No. If he was truly a hunter nin, he would have disposed of the body on sight to prevent the chance of other nations getting information from his body. And the weapon he used, senbon, are not lethal weapons. He likely hit pressure points in Zabuza's neck to put him in to a death-like state." Was the blunt response they got from Gaara.

Sai looked over at Gaara, "You seem to have lots of experience with this, Gaara-san."

"We are mercenaries. We have had dealings with plenty of hunter-nin."

Kakashi spoke up again, "That's unimportant. What matter is that Zabuza is still out there, and likely has a skilled accomplice. What we need to do is get you ready to face him."

"What can we learn in a week that would help us against an A-ranked nin and his helper?" The resident Uchiha of the squad asked.

Naruto spoke from his corner of the room, "You'll be learning chakra control exercises. Gaara will go with Tanzuna to guard the bridge, Kakashi will stay here and rest while I take you three out to teach you."

Sasuke seemed satisfied with the answer, Sai didn't respond in any noticeable way, although Sakura looked slightly uncomfortable knowing that someone who she didn't know was in charge of her training. With that matter settled, Everyone moved out to their tasks.

Kakashi pulled out his book and started reading on the couch while Naruto lead sakura, Sai, and Sasuke to a clearing in the woods. Gaara left with Tanzuna to go to the bridge.

When the genin arrived at the clearing they took a look around before turning their attention back to Naruto.

"Okay! The first thing I'm going to be showing you three is how to climb trees!" Naruto clapped his hands together enthusiastically.

Sakura glanced at her teammates uncertainly before speaking up, "Ummm, but Naruto-san, we already know how to climb trees."

The blond smirked slightly, "Can you do it without your hands?" Seeing her confusion, he decided to demonstrate. "Watch carefully. You're going to be doing exactly what I do.

He started walking towards a nearby tree, but instead of stopping when he reached he base, he simply kept walking straight up it.

When he was about halfway up he turned back to see the expressions on the genin's faces. Sai was regarding him with an impassive face, Sasuke had a raised eyebrow and an interested expression while Sakura just looked gobsmacked.

Satisfied with their responses, Naruto gave them their instructions. "This is the tree walking exercise. It's a basic skill that Kakashi really should have taught you already, but that's neither here nor there. What you do is apply chakra to your feet to stick to the tree. Too much and you'll be repelled, too little and you won't stick. Any questions so far?"

Sai raised his hand to get Naruto's attention, "Yes, Naruto-senpai, I already know this technique."

Naruto looked at Sai for a moment. _That's right, jiji did say that this kid was from root. It makes sense that he would know this. _"I see. Do you also know water walking?"

Sai nodded to his question, "Yes, senpai."

"Well I've got just the exercise for you. I'll describe it once I'm done with these two." With that dealt with, Naruto turned his attention back to Sakura and Sasuke. Tossing them two kunai he continued his explanation. "Use those to mark you progress. This exercise is meant to increase your chakra control, so naturally Sasuke will have a harder time due to his larger reserves. Sakura, This may seem easy at first, but I want you to keep running up and down the tree until I ay so, once you get the hang of it. That will help you to increase your small reserves. Okay! Get to work you two!"

Sasuke immediately charged at the nearest tree and made several steps up before getting blasted away. His brow furrowed in concentration as he tried again.

Sakura, wanting to prove herself to Sasuke, also began. Once the two had got into it, Naruto turned to the third member of the team. "You will be training with a jutsu that I developed to help increase physical stamina, chakra control, and chakra capacity all at once."

Suddenly a clone of Naruto appeared at his side and did a small chain of hand-seals.

**"Suiton : water halo jutsu!"**

Water seemed to come out of nowhere as it condensed in the air and formed a flat, but relatively wide ring just above the treetops. "You will be running laps on that until I say so."

"Yes senpai. But I would like to know how you preformed that jutsu without any water nearby."

The two that were training with their trees looked over, they were curious to. After all, that was a feat that it was said only the second hokage could pull off.

Naruto looked back and forth between the genin before answering, "The Uzumaki were destroyed in the last war by a Iwa/Kiri joined assault. They feared them and their close ties to Konoha, so they eliminated them. After three day's of siege from the full force of two of the big five, Uzugakure finally fell. No many attacking shinobi survived the assault, and any that did were destroyed by the Konoha reinforcements that arrived to late to save the village. To this day the Uzumaki crest is on the back of all chuunin and jounin vests to commemorate their fallen allies. The crest was originally white, but it is shown red to represent the blood spilled on the day of their destruction." Naruto concluded his story in a somewhat somber tone.

The other occupants of the clearing were awed at the story they were just told. They never learned any of that in the academy, even though it seemed to be so important.

"Well that's enough of a history lesson for one day! Le's get back to work!" Shouted Naruto in a more upbeat voice. Sasuke could tell that it was forced, but didn't nag Naruto about it. He of all people knew what it was like talking about the destruction of your clan.

Once Sasuke and Sakura started, Sai turned to Naruto, "Naruto-senpai, I can see how this could help my training, but how do I et up to the water?"

Getting an evil gleam in his eye, Naruto grabbed the scruff of Sai's shirt and tossed him into the air before the pale boy could protest. "Haha! Now start running laps! And if my clone sees you slow down, he'll disperse the jutsu and drop you on the ground before making you start over! Now hop to it!"

Sai immediately started running at a steady pace around the loop. Chuckling softly, Naruto found a tree to sit down and lean against before pulling out an orange book and started reading. He was going to keep them doing this for a few hours, so he needed something to do, and what could be a better way to spend your time than reading one of the greatest books in existence?

* * *

At about noon, the group in the forest took a small break for lunch. Naruto looked at his temporary students and tought about their progress.

Sakura had got the hang of tree walking almost immediately, but she simply didn't have the chakra reserves or the physical stamina to keep at it for long periods of time.

Sasuke hadn't made it to the top of the tree yet, but he was making steady progress and would probably be able to by the end of the day. The tips that Naruto kept giving him were helping him along at an impressive pace.

And last but not least, Sai. He had one remarkably well, although he did get dropped on the ground once for taking an unauthorized break.

"You guy's have done fairly well so far. I think that I'm going to give you each something different to work on now." Naruto looked at the, with an appraising look. "Sai, do you know your nature affinity?"

Raising an eyebrow at the question, he shook his head.

Naruto nodded and pulled out a slip of paper. He handed it to Sai, "Here. Chanel some chakra into this."

Sakura was watching intently. She had heard about nature affinities, but they were usually only taught to people once they were chuunin. Sasuke was also watching. He know what chakra paper was, after all, he had used it in the past, but he was interested in what affinity his teammate had.

Shrugging, Sai channelled some chakra. A moment later his paper lit on fire, slightly startling Sakura. Naruto looked unsurprised at this development.

"Well, looks like you're a fire type like Sasuke and me. It's not that surprizing considering that it is the most common affinity in Konoha."

Team 7 looked at Naruto for a moment, "I thought you were a water type, Naruto. Wouldn't that make fire extremely hard to learn?" Sasuke asked. The rest for the team seemed surprized that he was talking so freely, but then again, this was his old friend from way back when.

Naruto grinned at Sasuke for a moment. "You're right, I am a water type, But it's only a second affinity. I'm primarily a wind user, but I have fire and water affinities as well."

Once the genin had picked their jaws up off the ground, they looked at the blond with something akin to awe. His abilities with water were extremely powerful and rare, but it wasn't even his primary affinity!

Naruto just laughed at the expressions on their faces, "Haha! The look on your faces was priceless! But I suppose we're getting a little off track. Sai, I'm going to have you working on fire manipulation. Sakura, You'll be starting the water walking exercise, and Sasuke will keep working on the tree walking until I think that his has it down."

Again making a seal less shadow clone, Naruto turned to Sakura. "The water walking ability is similar to tree walking, except that you have to constantly adjust the level of chakra you're emitting. You should pick it up pretty quick, but I can assure you that you'll get wet."

With that being said, his clone held the bird seal. Immediately a large amount of water formed a cylinder of water about fifteen feet wide and four feet deep.

"Okay, get to it! You can get on top of it from that branch over there. And don't complain about the water being too cold or too deep. It'll give you more motivation to get it done quicker." Naruto called out, back in his 'sensei-mode'.

Sakura eyed the water warily before sighing. At least she didn't have to worry about being dropped from the sky if she messed up like Sai did earlier.

Glancing to his side, Naruto saw that Sasuke was already running up his tree again. That only left Sai. The blond shinobi walked over to a tree and plucked a leaf from it. He turned to Sai and held out the leaf to him, "What you're going to be doing is making this leaf burn with your chakra like the paper did."

Sai looked a little uncertain as he took the leaf out of Naruto's hand.

Seeing the look of uncertainty, he gave a few more details, "Imagine your chakra as a raging fire as it leaves your hand and travels into the leaf. Don't be too frustrated if it doesn't seem like your making progress, this is a jounin level exercise and takes several months o complete."

Sai seemed to be more assured by Naruto's words, so he sat down and started working on the task given him.

Naruto grinned as he looked at the team he was supposed to be training._ I might be a hypocrite to say this, but_ _th__ey all are doing remarkably well for their age. This might be interesting after all._

* * *

**Meanwhile**

In a small hideout in the forest, a young girl sat on a stool as she removed the needles from the neck of the person laying beside her. Just as she went to pull out another, a hand shot up and grabbed her wrist.

"Don't bother. I can pull these out." He then grabbed the remaining senbon and jerked them out of his skin.

"Careful. If you don't pull them out carefully the effects might be permanent." The girl spoke in a calm voice.

The man didn't respond to her warning other than a brief snort.

"What are you planning, Zabuza-sama? Even you can't go up against the sword and shield brothers and Kakashi at the same time."

Zabuza sighed for a moment before coming to a decision. "As much as I hate to admit it, I can't do this alone. I have an old friend that could be of use though. I heard he recently joined a powerful organization. I could persuade that bastard Gato to hire him as support. In the meantime we'll need to prepare for the upcoming fight."

"Who are you talking about?"

The demon of the mist grinned slightly before he answered, "You'll see when he gets here. I have to say, it's been a long while since I've seen ol' shark face."

* * *

**And done! I actually had this chapter written for a while on my iPod, but it took me a long time to finish transferring it to my laptop to post. I hope that you like it, please leave a review and tell me what you think!**


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